Evolution of Nutrient Uptake Reveals a Trade‐Off in the Ecological Stoichiometry of Plant‐Herbivore Interactions

Abstract

Evolution of nutrient uptake reveals a trade-off in the ecological stoichiometry of plantherbivore interactions Mayer Branco, P.M.; Stomp, M.; Egas, C.J.M.; Huisman, J. Disclaimer/Complaints regulationsIf you believe that digital publication of certain material infringes any of your rights or (privacy) interests, please let the Library know, stating your reasons. In case of a legitimate complaint, the Library will make the material inaccessible and/or remove it from the website. Please Ask the Library: http://uba.uva.nl/en/contact, or a letter to: Library of the University of Amsterdam, Secretariat, Singel 425, 1012 WP Amsterdam, The Netherlands. You will be contacted as soon as possible. abstract: Nutrient limitation determines the primary production and species composition of many ecosystems. Here we apply an adaptive dynamics approach to investigate evolution of the ecological stoichiometry of primary producers and its implications for plantherbivore interactions. The model predicts a trade-off between the competitive ability and grazing susceptibility of primary producers, driven by changes in their nutrient uptake rates. High nutrient uptake rates enhance the competitiveness of primary producers but also increase their nutritional quality for herbivores. This trade-off enables coexistence of nutrient exploiters and grazing avoiders. If herbivores are not selective, evolution favors runaway selection toward high nutrient uptake rates of the primary producers. However, if herbivores select nutritious food, the model predicts an evolutionarily stable strategy with lower nutrient uptake rates. When the model is parameterized for phytoplankton and zooplankton, the evolutionary dynamics result in plant-herbivore oscillations at ecological timescales, especially in environments with high nutrient availability and low selectivity of the herbivores. High herbivore selectivity stabilizes the community dynamics. These model predictions show that evolution permits nonequilibrium dynamics in plant-herbivore communities and shed new light on the evolutionary forces that shape the ecological stoichiometry of primary producers.

Consistent nutrient storage and supply mediated by diverse fish communities in coral reef ecosystems

“…This theory, while typically associated with short-term community dynamics, has obvious evolutionary underpinnings (Falkowski et al, 1998;Quigg et al, 2003). In resource poor environments, there is strong selective pressure for adaptations that maximize utilization of resources that are most critical for growth and fitness (Elser et al, 2000;Sterner & Elser, 2002;Branco et al, 2010). As such, there may be important evolutionary consequences for the structure and function of coral reef ecosystems if fishes, as a dominant source of nutrients, are supplying those nutrients at relatively consistent ratios (at the level of the entire community).…”

Conflict between dynamical and evolutionary stability in simple ecosystems

“…We used a previously employed tradeoff in our work (similar to Loeuille et al (2002); Branco et al (2010)), and our choice of the tradeoff shape may influence our results concerning stability. Although we have not proved that maximum resilience and a CSS cannot coincide, we observed no correspondence between evolutionary stable outcomes and resilience over a wide range of parameters for the different tradeoff functions employed here (see Appendix Figures 5,6,7,9 and 10).…”

Evolutionary branching in distorted trait spaces

“…Although this section focuses on one of the simplest configurations among possible local distortions for two-dimensional trait spaces, the obtained results are already useful in analyses of eco-evolutionary models defined on two-dimensional trait spaces with constraint curves deriving from various trade-offs (e.g., trade-offs between competitive ability and grazing susceptibility of primary producers (Branco et al, 2010), foraging gain and predation risk of consumers (Abrams, 2003), specialist and generalist of consumers (Egas et al, 2004), transmission and virulence of parasites (Kamo et al, 2006), competitive ability and attack rate (or longevity) of parasitoids (Bonsal et al, 2004), and fecundity and dispersal (Weigang and Kisdi, 2015)). Specifically, by an appropriate rotation around a focal point (Fig.…”